Jansen Art Studio- Sidney Fine Art Center

Historical and Contemporary Art

Mixing Colors with Dot System

Mixing colors is very easy if you use this simple dot system.  Just put out a small dot of each color in the proportions given for the mixed color.  If you need more color, just make a larger dot.  You can mixed up larger amounts and store them in the small painting cups shown on our supply page.  Colors stored in these small cups will stay nice for many weeks.  Watch the video here for some storage suggestions.  Here is the link to the supply page.

Supply Page

Video Coming Soon

Step 1- Simple Mixes
6 Color Set

Naphthol Red Light= Red Orange 
Red Violet= Red Violet 
Hansa Yellow= Yellow 
Phthalo Blue=  Blue leaning slightly blue green 
Carbon Black= Black, neutral 
Titanium White= White, neutral  

Step 2- First Mixes

These are simple mixes to expand the 6 colors to make an Orange, Green and Brown 

Base Orange = 3 parts Hansa Yellow + 1 part Naphthol Red Light 

Base Green = 4 parts Hansa Yellow + 1 part Phthalo 
Blue 

Base Brown = 2 part Naphthol Red Light + 1 part Carbon Black

Artist Choice

For many of your painting lessons step 1 and step 2 colors are enough.  This gives you 9 colors to work with.  The 9 colors give you the ability to tone colors, change values, and move around the wheel a little easier.  For some lessons and faster painting, you can expand the colors even further with the next mixes.